(Jess writing)
We are back in cold, rainy Mexico city- I am actually kind of glad we came here during the raining season- apparently the air is practically unbreathable in the dry season. The rain cleans the pollution out of the air alot (though not out of the metro...) We have definintely gotten to the point in our trip where it feels like we are just holding our breath, waiting to be home again. Clove is showing up in all my dreams- I can still see her tiny little face and big eyes gazing at me fearfully from under the kitchen table from the last time I left her for this long. Hopefully this time she will not run away again.
However, the homesick blues has not prevented me from enjoying more sights and sounds of Mexico. We spent two nights on a really chill, fairly empty beach on the Pacific Coast. We were trying to get to Mazunte, which is sort of a hippy, backpackers beach and ended up on St. Augustino or something... I think it was a lucky mistake. The waves were pretty rough- one of them sent both me and shannon sommersaulting (how does one spell sommersaulting) under the current- luckily it did not slam us into the sand or anything. The beach was actually really shallow, so I was never terribly worried about rip-tide or anything. Maybe I should have been...
We went on a tour of a swamp near by run by a community of 24 families that have set up an eco-reserve to preserve the endangered wildlife and habitat there. For only 35 pesos (3 dollars?) we took an hour long boat ride through the swamp where we saw about a douzen crocodiles, a bunch of bright green, huge iguanas and a handful of incredible birds. The tour guide actually beckoned a crocodile to come right up to our boat- seriously maybe two feet from my face, just by splashing his hand around in the water. I swear, i had hoped never to get so close to a crocodile, but it seemed not to want to try to snatch us out of our boat, which I guess is a good thing...
Then we wandered into the town of Mazunte to visit the turtle center, where we got to see hundreds of turtles, including tiny little baby sea turtles. The center is devoted to educating people about the reasons not to poach turtles and also to help raise and release sea turtles back into the wild. It was pretty sweet. We even saw slider turtles like Stella (if only I had had that yellow lid...)
The only downside to the beach is that it left me with about 45 mosquito bites... c'est la vie.
After the beach we went to Oaxaca city. The whole point of the excursion was to shorten the bus ride to Mexico city, though I think we failed because, despite the guide book tellig us the bus ride would be seven hours, it ended up being more than ten. I never want to ride on a cross country bus again...
Oaxaca city seemed like a nice city from what I could gather from one day's wander. It is the chocolate capitol of Mexico, so I bought some hot chocolate with cinnamon which I am excited to try when I get home. It was sort of a mix between the clean, brightly colored, mountainous charm of St Crisobal and the busy, faster-paced Mexico city. Only with more Oaxacan arts and crafts all over the place (like Monas dragon and giraffe). The best part of it is that everything is smothered in Oaxacan cheese (kind of like American string cheese, only it tastes like cow and is a lot thicker). I am going to miss this cheese...
Anyway, we are now back in Mexico city. We are either going to go explore Aztec ruins in downtown Mexico city or take an excursion to the pyramids outside of Mexico city, depending on how ambitious we feel. Mostly I think we both just want to go home to our kitties and drinkable tap water. Mmm... drinkable tap water.
If we are feeling ambitious, we might post photos today. Otherwise, we will certainly post more upon our arrival in Minneapolis TOMORROW!!!!!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Acropolis at Yax Chitlan
we walked up about 500 stairs (with our packs and all our luggage) to see this building, but it was totally worth it!
Welcome to the Jungle!
(Jess writing)
Shannon and I arrived back in St Cris last night- though it has only been about three and a half weeks since we left here, it seems like we have covered a lot of ground in that time.
The Jungle-
So we stayed in this picturesque spot in the middle of the lacondon jungle- our cabin had a beautiful view of the lacanja river. It was really only just three walls, a large bed with mosquito netting, a hammock and two chairs. We made friends with a giant spider about as big as my hand. It was actually quite respectful of our space and spent most of its time hanging out on the ceiling. I would like to say that we saw all kinds of awesome flora and fauna- jaguars and ocelots and monkeys and parrots and things... but really, we mostly just saw bugs. Giant spiders, irridescent flies, butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors, grasshoppers, cicadas... we saw a couple of monkeys from far away, some rodent looking thing that I am pretty sure was an agouti and one crocodile. We are convinced we heard jaguars fighting in the woods, though we have since been informed that it was probably howler monkeys. I am still convinced it was jaguars...
Did you know- the dinosaur noises from the film Jurassic Park were actually howler monkeys? Weird, huh?
We went rafting down the river that our cabin was on- it had about a douzen waterfalls- rafting down waterfalls is actually really fun- like valley fair, only without the safety precautions! One of the waterfalls was so large that we actually had to get out of the raft and jump off of it into the water below. I still can´t quite believe my body allowed me to do anything quite so foolish, but I seem to still be alive. I suppose the adventure is good for me...
After the rafting, we hiked back to camp through the jungle. On the way back there was a waterfall we could swim in- all in all, the day was pretty incredible.
The next day, Shannon and I spent the day exploring the jungle trasportation system in order to get to two nearby ruin sites, yax chitlan and bonampac. Bonampac has the only colored murals in the mayan world and yax chitlan was definitely the biggest and most impressive ruin site we have seen so far. After the ruins, we managed to catch a minibus back to palenque.
Yesterday, we did a tour from palenque to st. cris that stopped by the two big waterfall tourist attractions in the jungle- misol-ha and agua azul. Bus rides are definitely more fun when you get to stop to picnic and swim in waterfalls. I was a bit disappoited though because the tour made it sound like we would take a minibus all the way to st cris. They actually just had the big bus company make a stop at the waterfall to pick us up. Windy mountain roads on large buses equals motion sick jess.
Anyway, Monday we are off to Mazunte, a hippy beach on the pacific coast, then off to mexico city to see aztec ruins for a change, then home! I miss my kitty...
Shannon and I arrived back in St Cris last night- though it has only been about three and a half weeks since we left here, it seems like we have covered a lot of ground in that time.
The Jungle-
So we stayed in this picturesque spot in the middle of the lacondon jungle- our cabin had a beautiful view of the lacanja river. It was really only just three walls, a large bed with mosquito netting, a hammock and two chairs. We made friends with a giant spider about as big as my hand. It was actually quite respectful of our space and spent most of its time hanging out on the ceiling. I would like to say that we saw all kinds of awesome flora and fauna- jaguars and ocelots and monkeys and parrots and things... but really, we mostly just saw bugs. Giant spiders, irridescent flies, butterflies of all shapes, sizes and colors, grasshoppers, cicadas... we saw a couple of monkeys from far away, some rodent looking thing that I am pretty sure was an agouti and one crocodile. We are convinced we heard jaguars fighting in the woods, though we have since been informed that it was probably howler monkeys. I am still convinced it was jaguars...
Did you know- the dinosaur noises from the film Jurassic Park were actually howler monkeys? Weird, huh?
We went rafting down the river that our cabin was on- it had about a douzen waterfalls- rafting down waterfalls is actually really fun- like valley fair, only without the safety precautions! One of the waterfalls was so large that we actually had to get out of the raft and jump off of it into the water below. I still can´t quite believe my body allowed me to do anything quite so foolish, but I seem to still be alive. I suppose the adventure is good for me...
After the rafting, we hiked back to camp through the jungle. On the way back there was a waterfall we could swim in- all in all, the day was pretty incredible.
The next day, Shannon and I spent the day exploring the jungle trasportation system in order to get to two nearby ruin sites, yax chitlan and bonampac. Bonampac has the only colored murals in the mayan world and yax chitlan was definitely the biggest and most impressive ruin site we have seen so far. After the ruins, we managed to catch a minibus back to palenque.
Yesterday, we did a tour from palenque to st. cris that stopped by the two big waterfall tourist attractions in the jungle- misol-ha and agua azul. Bus rides are definitely more fun when you get to stop to picnic and swim in waterfalls. I was a bit disappoited though because the tour made it sound like we would take a minibus all the way to st cris. They actually just had the big bus company make a stop at the waterfall to pick us up. Windy mountain roads on large buses equals motion sick jess.
Anyway, Monday we are off to Mazunte, a hippy beach on the pacific coast, then off to mexico city to see aztec ruins for a change, then home! I miss my kitty...
Monday, August 17, 2009
Mayan Ruins
We seem to be in the Mayan ruin section of our trip. We spent one night (and one action packed day) in Tulum visiting the ancient Mayan sea port town located on the coast just outside of Tulum. We didn´t really know what to expect from Tulum, just that we didn´t want to spend any more time in the tourist death trap that is Cancun. Though the hostel we stayed at was less than pleasing (and we met a couple of dude-bro backpackers from california who traveled only to party with other tourists and pick up "babes", Tulum wasn´t a total waste. The archeological site was amazing- there were iguanas everywhere and the ruins were quite impressive. The best part about though was that after spending an hour walking around in the beating sun on a ninety degree day with no shade, the path leads you directly down to a beautiful beach just under the towering ruins. The beaches in Tulum definitely had one up on those of Cancun- not only were they less crowded but instead of the drab view of hotels and resorts behind you as you swim, you get ruins and jungle.
We took a night bus from Tulum to Palenque (only a short 12 hours) on these first class buses- they handed us treat bags on the way in and had headphones so you could tune out the bad dubbed movies they play on all the buses here. We arrived in Palenque yesterday- today we went to the big ruin site just outside of town. It was pretty incredible- piraminds and palaces, all remarkably well preserved (or restored possibly). Tomorrow we are off to the jungle to sleep in a cabin on stilts above a river. I´m quite excited.
We took a night bus from Tulum to Palenque (only a short 12 hours) on these first class buses- they handed us treat bags on the way in and had headphones so you could tune out the bad dubbed movies they play on all the buses here. We arrived in Palenque yesterday- today we went to the big ruin site just outside of town. It was pretty incredible- piraminds and palaces, all remarkably well preserved (or restored possibly). Tomorrow we are off to the jungle to sleep in a cabin on stilts above a river. I´m quite excited.
Friday, August 14, 2009
back in cancun!
it was incredible. i dont have time to write much, let alone upload pictures (we have a bus to catch because we are not staying in cancun - too expensive), but suffice to say, it was beautiful, and we survived. heading to tulum to see some ruins tomorrow morning, then to palenque for more ruins, then to the jungle for a couple days. updates unlikely until our return to san cris (next friday or saturday).
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